This has been an ongoing case back in Saskatchewan that's regained prominence as the killer has been sentenced as an adult, which has allowed people to speak publicly. The short version is that a teenaged couple broke up and the guy, possessive and violent, stalked and killed her. The latest revelation, and what is truly unsettling, is that huge numbers of kids at the high school knew what this guy was planning, that he had engaged and plotted with friends to do it. The levels of depravity—from playing along, thinking it serious or not, to looking the other way—is fucking chilling. The hypersocialization of Internet culture that also weirdly numbs social responsibility to others is nothing short of horrific.

This has been an ongoing case back in Saskatchewan that's regained prominence as the killer has been sentenced as an adult, which has allowed people to speak publicly. The short version is that a teenaged couple broke up and the guy, possessive and violent, stalked and killed her. The latest revelation, and what is truly unsettling, is that huge numbers of kids at the high school knew what this guy was planning, that he had engaged and plotted with friends to do it. The levels of depravity—from playing along, thinking it serious or not, to looking the other way—is fucking chilling. The hypersocialization of Internet culture that also weirdly numbs social responsibility to others is nothing short of horrific.

That's horrible. And, as you say, it suggests something chilling about how social engagement is evolving with the internet.

I'll offer something slightly different. Without denying one iota the centuries-old Euro-American male entitlement to treat women like objects, and women knowing that's how the cultural sinews of power are built and so challenging it will bring a world of shit down on them, another factor that is vital to all this is that these monsters, be it Weinstein or Ailes, get away with it because they generate great profit for their companies and the people associated with them. They are golden geese and that incentivizes everyone around them, men and women, to look the other way or otherwise rationalize their behaviour. They are immunized until something dramatic happens because we privilege profit over, y'know, basic human decency. If they can't make other people wealthy, their ability to be predators drops way way down (that is, their potential prey becomes less notable). It's the "I got mine" mentality of our economy that enables these bastards as much as cultural mores of male dominance.

edit: To be clear, I'm talking about how these powerful guys gets away with it, not the everyday humiliations women deal with because pushing back against cultural privileges is beyond most people, even good people.

I'll offer something slightly different. Without denying one iota the centuries-old Euro-American male entitlement to treat women like objects, and women knowing that's how the cultural sinews of power are built and so challenging it will bring a world of shit down on them, another factor that is vital to all this is that these monsters, be it Weinstein or Ailes, get away with it because they generate great profit for their companies and the people associated with them. They are golden geese and that incentivizes everyone around them, men and women, to look the other way or otherwise rationalize their behaviour. They are immunized until something dramatic happens because we privilege profit over, y'know, basic human decency. If they can't make other people wealthy, their ability to be predators drops way way down (that is, their potential prey becomes less notable). It's the "I got mine" mentality of our economy that enables these bastards as much as cultural mores of male dominance.

edit: To be clear, I'm talking about how these powerful guys gets away with it, not the everyday humiliations women deal with because pushing back against cultural privileges is beyond most people, even good people.

Good point. I was going to respond to this but I got sidetracked at work and forgot what I was going to say. But I still wanted to acknowledge.